Formalization of artisanal and small-scale mining in Colombia: Achievements and challenges relating to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals

Debates on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have mostly centered on the potential to alleviate poverty. However, the role of ASM in meeting other SDGs has received less attention within the literature. In addition, the literature has tended to focus on the failures of attempts to formalize ASM. In this paper, we identify seven concrete policy tools or mechanisms aimed at facilitating the process of formalizing ASM operators that have been in effect since 2014 in Colombia, and we assess to what extent they have contributed to meeting SDGs. Our study therefore diverges from recent literature which has mainly sought to explain the failures of efforts to formalize ASM. Instead, we show how mining formalization policies have contributed to the fulfillment of SDGs other than poverty alleviation, such as sustainable economic growth, peace, justice, strong institutions and good health. The importance of these practical legal mechanisms lies in their contribution to the creation of social and economic conditions that support the independence and sustainability of the ASM formalization process in Colombia, without requiring intervention from specific foreign agencie